how do i break-in speakers? - Page 2

I've never seen manufacturers caution against high volumes with new speakers -- there's simply no technical reason for it. I usually use extremely loud and bass-heavy music signals for breaking in headphones and haven't experienced one single damage.

No mine are the non-pro version, with audax compressed paper 4" midrange and 6.5" sub, mylar tweeters and 80 watts rms. Unfortunately they aren't made anymore but they absolutely blew away the mx5021, which I'd read was the best 2.1 system out there apart from the klipsch promedias, which are hard to get in the UK.
BTW that car engine analogy may have been true years and years ago, but with new engines, especially bike engines, the tolerances are close enough that you can thrash them from new as long as you let the engine warm up to normal operating temp first. In fact you can get more power in the long term from them.
I've heard many stories of the same motorcycle and car engines, used in the same environments with the smilar mileages and one making 5% more power on a dyno. All this crap about taking it easy with new anything, is just that. Anything electrical or mechanical doesn't need to be run in nowadays. I think it all stems from manufacturers worried about warranties, legal issues and tube amps. This is all IMO of course, but I've even heard racing teams getting three mile old cbr600 engines and thrashing them from the word go, and they've converted them back to road use and they're still 100% reliable on the original parts. Also my dad trained to be a mechanic, he's now a parts advisor, but he worked on old fords and stuff and the older engines felt and went faster when they were older. This *isn't* a myth if you take a new engine and one that's done a couple of thousand miles, you'll notice the difference. Old nails that have tens of thousands of miles of carbon build up in all their engine and exhaust parts, are poorly adjusted and have dirty paper air filters, spark plugs and corroded distributors/wiring excepted.
The effect of burn-in is not a myth, it's both a mental and physical process of adaption, but using anything normally to it's fullest extent from new is fine.

I agree. Just let it happen. No real need for dedicated breaking in.

I' Then you have not looked but have instead just decided on your own what you beleive to be true.Ever hear of Thiel ?

http://thielaudio.com/THIEL_Site05/P..._ownerinfo.pdf

Many other speaker manufacturers recommend break-in as well (I could provide links but why when one is enough to go to point) and the no technical merit conclusion off bass if you consider it is not a purely electrical mechanism but being mechanical has movement.That does not mean anyone should get crazy on this but to blast music through them straight out of the box not the best move either and average volume levels over a week of normal listening should be right on target.

some beleive interconnests and cables need to be burned in and prove their point by shoiwing the graphs but this is only to form the dielectric-no moving parts.

some beleive electronics need to be broken in,that as the parts warm up and settle in the operating points will be met as they were designed to do (my gear takes 1/2-1 hour to warm up being all class-A) but this is electronic-no moving parts

Speakers move,headphones move,microphone diaphrams move so common sense tells me they need motion to stretch the memranes and that gradually not zero to full out straight from the gate.you don't run five miles with a new pair of running shoes,you don't play ball with a new glove and I don't run any speaker full out until i break it in.

as always just an opinion,mine and all can do whatever but some actual info never hurts the discussion

You must have misinterpreted their advice. Quoted from the above link:

Exactly what I'm saying. And since the sense behind dedicated break-in is to accelerate the process, louder is better.


Your conservative attitude doesn't have any reason other than a bad feeling, right?


BTW, I absolutely believe in break-in/burn-in, maybe even with cables...


What you call «common sense» is unfounded anxiety in this case. Nevertheless: Running five miles won't hurt a new pair of shoes (which would fall under warranty), at best your feet, and playing ball with a new glove at best will hurt your play. In analogy, playing loud music through a new speaker won't hurt the speaker, at best the music -- but who cares if you're away!


I disagree. Uninformed scare stories do hurt the discussion. As a hobbyist speaker constructor I know what I'm talking about. Every new bass driver gets a heavy dose of bass to bring its parameters somewhere near the default values, otherwise you won't be able to design an adequate cabinet around it. Show me some credible information that it hurts to play new speakers loud, and I'm ready to learn something more -- which I haven't learned during my speaker practice.

they recommend gradual and it is right inb the manual

Actually like 30 years hands on experience with high end audio equipment both building it and testing it sprinkled with common a sense approach.Most of my "feelings" are due to experiences and from observation.

As do I but not as an actual separate action but simply by using it.

I have zero anxiety and could not care less who blew up their entire system as long as mine is intact and will as always follow my own advice it having served me well and actully has been a source of income (custom studio installs and home theater installation plus cutom builds of electronics for a fee) in the past with 100% customer satisfaction.No call backs unless for more work,not to fix previous work.So I must do at least some things right.
What others choose to do or not do does not effect me or my musical enjoyment one bit and I throw out what answers I can in an attempt to help but I leave it to others to decide the merits or lack of.

BTW-obviously you have never run a single block in new footgear or you would realise I was not inferring any damage would occur to the running shoes but to the actual feet which would be so blistered those shoes would not be going back on for a while.Playing ball with a new glove WILL hurt the play and big time and is the reason a new glove is broken in way before the old one retired from play.

Dangerous ? Is this now a dangerous thing this speaker break in process if not done according to your advice ?


OOOOH NOOOOOO ! whatever shall we do if we get it wrong

so,uh,what happens next man ? does my gear melt or something ?

What I disagree with 100% is your general attitude of your way or be damned and that is so much more dangerous because it closes off any discussion and is no more than an audio elitist attitude.Something we have mostly been spared of but this being an audio site only a matter of time before egos become larger than any meritorious content.

Yours also is only an opinion and to be considered with the entire body of both opinion and information content sprinkled with real world experience and then yes,gut,what seems to be the right call when all is weighed by any thinking person.

I can come up with information to argue my side,Ii am sure you can do the same and that does what ? Inform ?
No.It would be no more than a pissing match to see who could carry the day and i am not playing man so play solitare or find another dancing partner.

what IS dangerous is a closed mind and tunnel vision.Both of which you seem to have and abundance of as you will accpet no veiw not your own.The inflated ego tag I will let go not knowing you well enough to throw that particular dart at this time but i have my suspicians..................

I don't have to show you doo doo because this is not about me and you though it seems you would make it that.You have a nice day and blast away at your speakers man.I do find it interesting though that you seem not to care about what any neighbors may think about this volume that because you are "away" would not be bothering you.Seems a bit selfish to me but again,I do not know you so maybe that dart also should be held back.

enjoy the weekend man (holiday weekend here)

Rickster Out

Rick, dude, this is an audio discussion, not a fight!

Actually the subject isn't that important, and all things have been said, but I can't resist to answer to your last irrational post...


Really? I've quoted the whole break-in chapter.


It would be useful to know which of your experiences have teached you to take special care with new speakers. All this wishy-washy «common sense» doesn't really make sense.


To each his own. But the thread starter would like to get information about the optimal break-in procedure. Maybe he wants to decide himself if he wants to accelerate the process with dedicated break-in or just let the speakers play and listen. In the former case it would be silly to dilute this approach with unfounded warnings.


How could an overly conservative attitude cause any damage...


We're in total agreement here. You just draw the wrong conclusions: The speaker is the new shoe and the new glove.


You have the wrong idea of what's going on in my break-in procedure. It looks like this:



The bass drivers vibrate at around 30 Hz (near the resonant frequency) without a housing, half of them with reversed phase, and although the amplitude reaches 20 mm and more, you barely hear a sound. Similarly with the proposed full speaker break-in with two speaker cabinets face to face, one of them with reversed phase: all you hear is (a bit) mids and highs, barely disturbing the neighbors if you take care.

I am not sure if there IS a true consensus on what is optimal and information is all over the map so all reponses can only be opinions.Yes you can document one side and i could the other but in the end only reinforces preconceived beleifs and helps no one decide.
In the end ALL things break in with use so maybe just play some music and not stressing the details is in the end the better way to go.

I can say though that members have in the past damaged new headphones by being anal about breaking them in with a high volume warble or pure tone rather than just using them with music and letting nature take its course and since a loudspeaker cone has many similiaraities could possibly suffer the same consequences if the same method used.

but hey man.in the end it really is just about the song and not the gear.i can listen to a great song on a car radio and enjoy it but a bad cut even on the best system will send me looking for an exit

enjoy man

rickster

Geeeeeeeeeeeeez......just play the damned things and enjoy the music.

Here's a quote from one of my respected audiophiles.

"Assuming the speakers do have some actual defect they should require about 0 seconds of break in.

A one second burst of music with a normal distribution of frequency will cause the woofer cones to move through about 3000 forward and back excursions.

The tweeter diaphragm will go through many times the above number of cycles.

If you speakers do not sound right in your listening room then the most probable factors are that:

1. You are not yet accustomed to the way they sound in your listening room.What may well later become appreciated as detail and clarity really can produce an initial impression of harshness particularly at the high volumes most audio enthusiasts tend to play a new set of speakers ( including me
) when we first get them home.

2. You have not yet determined the optimal placement for your new speakers. I suggest you leave them where they are for a week or so and then start playing with placement. Like most modern speakers the 7s benefit from being placed away from the rear and side walls. There are numerous helpful sites ( including this one ) that feature discussions of placement strategies for floorstanding speakers. One suggestion that I found particularly relevant when running the KLF 30 was if possible to avoid absolute symmetry in speaker placement, (ie the speakers should not be exactly the same distance from the rear and side walls....don't sweat the dreaded WAF a difference of even a couple of inches from the grill to the wall can make a major difference).

3. Your room/equipment/speaker interface may need some tweaking. That said, do any upgrades one piece at a time and give yourself time to become accustomed to the speakers.Once you have had them for a while you will be more able to accurately assess where any deficits may lie."

Geez. All this drama over speaker break in. Reverse polarity, gradual then loud, blast them, tone generators....

The easiest way to break in a speaker? Listen to them.

Erukian - That sounds pretty well laid out, but I don't see how that makes it impossible for a driver to change in sound as it 'loosens up'. If that stat of 3000 movements in 1 second is even valid, it doesnt disprove burn in. These drivers are obviously made to endure a lot of stress, but nothing remains inviolate during its entire existance. Everything changes over time. I would think that driver manufacturers might build in a bit of resilience and as such they would come out of the box 'wound too tight' so to speak. This is what burn in improves.

However, it also brings the question... at what point to they burn out.